Sometime between 600 and 450 B.C.E., a high-status individual in what is today Germany developed some disturbing symptoms: large bruises, bleeding from the nose and gums, and bloody diarrhea and urine. His fellow villagers, shocked—or perhaps intrigued—by his condition, stored his blood and organs in pottery vessels after he died, and interred them in a burial mound. Now, using a novel technique based on analyzing ancient proteins, archaeologists have reconstructed the contents of these vessels to conclude that the individual likely died from Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), a severe tick-borne disease that still kills people across the world today.

Wednesday, 23 November 2016

Commuting to work can be a real pain, and it was no different in ancient Egypt. About 3500 years ago, the artisans who dug out and decorated the rock-cut royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings—the burial ground of Egypt's New Kingdom pharaohs—had to walk about 2 kilometers from their homes, over the Theban hills, to the royal necropolis for work. It was a steep climb, repeated week after week for years, leaving them suffering from osteoarthritis in the knees and ankles, according to a new study.

Egyptologists already knew a great deal about the village where the workers lived—Deir el-Medina, in modern Luxor—because of the vast amount of written material found there in the early 20th century. But they had paid little attention to the physical remains of the artisans and their families, found interred in tombs beside the village, their bones commingled after thousands of years of robbery. This has now changed thanks to research undertaken by Anne Austin, an osteologist and Egyptologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

Friday, 7 October 2016

My latest article for The Art Newspaper, a review of the exhibition 21 rue La Boétie at La Boverie in Liège...

Anne Sinclair with her grandfather Paul Rosenberg.

Photo: Sinclair Family

Woman in Blue in Front of a Fire, which was painted by Matisse in March 1937, has an interesting history. From the year it was painted until the Nazis invaded France in 1940, it was in the possession of the influential art dealer and collector Paul Rosenberg (1881-1959). To save it from loss—or worse, destruction—Rosenberg locked the painting with others in a bank vault in Libourne in southwest France, but in March 1941, the Nazis seized its contents. Soon after, it entered the collection of Hermann Göring and later vanished. It was next displayed at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Norway in 1968, and only recognised as one of Rosenberg's missing paintings in 2012, when it was lent to the Centre Pompidou. After it was returned to Paul Rosenberg's descendants two years later, the family sold it to a private collector.

This painting is on view in the exhibition 21 rue La Boétie at La Boverie in Liège, Belgium, and is just one of many intriguing stories to be discovered in this highly enjoyable presentation. The exhibition—named after the address of Paul Rosenberg's Paris gallery—follows the timeline of Rosenberg's life and profession: the rise of art dealers in the late 19th century; his dealings with some of the greatest artists of his day; the Nazi invasion of France and their looting of Modern art; and Rosenberg's time in New York and his attempts to recover his lost works of art.

Friday, 23 September 2016

The Mallawi Museum, in Egypt’s Al Minya Governorate, reopened this week after a £864,000 renovation. Most of the museum’s 1,000-piece collection has also been recovered from looters and is back on display.

The museum was ransacked in August 2013 during a period of violence in the country following the ousting of the former president Mohamed Morsi. The looters shot one member of the museum staff dead and stole almost all of the artefacts on display. Other items, too large to remove, were vandalised, destroyed or burned. The objects stolen predominantly date to the Graeco-Roman Period and included jewellery, shabti figurines depicting workers in the afterlife, statues of the gods Osiris, Isis, Hathor and Thoth, pottery, papyri, gold coins and wooden coffins.

Sunday, 18 September 2016

Anybody who tells you that the first step is always the hardest has never tried walking the nearly 600 steps that lead to the Catholic church of Bom Jesus do Monte near Braga, Portugal. In my humble opinion, having completed the pilgrimage, the last one is far worse, particularly when it’s raining. This exquisite baroque church at the hill’s summit has been the goal of sweaty, panting pilgrims since the 19th century, but earlier incarnations have existed on the same spot for far longer, probably all the way back to the 14th century. Since that time, the climb from the bottom of the hill to its top has represented a journey towards purification and salvation – a stairway to heaven. And like any pilgrimage, it isn’t easy. To reach the peak, pilgrims must ascend three separate stairways – built successively since the early 18th century, set among the hillside’s dense forest – stopping at chapels on platforms along the way to make offerings. Each chapel, spread along the route, represents a stage in the story of the Passion of Christ – Jesus’ journey towards his crucifixion. Your struggle to reach the church is a spiritual quest, meant to bring you closer to Christ.

Thursday, 15 September 2016

Here's the first paragraph of my article from the Summer 2016
issue of Timeless Travels...

The Palace of the Popes at AvignonPhoto: Garry Shaw

'Sur le Pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse, l'on y danse, sur le
Pont d'Avignon l'on y danse tous en rond’ goes the French children's song,
composed in the 19th century, but based on a much older tradition of songs
about the Provençal city's famous bridge. Seemingly known by every
French-speaking person on earth, the lyrics translate as, ‘On the Bridge of
Avignon, we dance there, we dance there, on the Bridge of Avignon, we dance
there all in a circle.’ Much to my embarrassment, until planning my trip to
Avignon, I hadn't heard of this song, but for my Francophone friends, it was a
completely different story: to them, I'd be embarking on a pilgrimage. ‘First
see the papal palace,’ they said (popes? in Avignon? I thought, keeping quiet
about my ignorance). ‘And then go stand on the bridge, sing the song and dance in
a circle. It's what you're supposed to do there.’ Well, I figured, if it's what
you're supposed to do. Why not?

Here's the first paragraph of my article from the Spring 2016 issue of Timeless
Travels...

Major's Point Acadian Cemetery in Nova Scotia. Photo: Garry Shaw

The year is 1744, and I arrive at the gates of the fortified
town of Louisbourg a little apprehensive – would the French sentry, dressed in
his blue military uniform, and – a little more worryingly – holding a long
rifle, let me, a Brit – the enemy – into the fortress? I’d read that the
garrison allowed local people in and out of the fort during daylight hours
(with the gates sealed at night), but the guards were always on the lookout for
British spies. Their test, so I’d read, was simple: if you spoke French, then
you were ok. If not, then you were a spy and imprisoned. Luckily, the sentries
were also known for taking bribes, but what if I met one of those pesky
rule-abiding ones?

About Garry

I am an Egyptologist, Lecturer and Author, writing on ancient history, travel and heritage.

I am the author of The Pharaoh: Life at Court and on Campaign, The Egyptian Myths: A Guide to the Ancient Gods and Legends, and War and Trade with the Pharaohs: An Archaeological Study of Ancient Egypt's Foreign Relations.

I have taught Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, the University of Liverpool, the Egypt Exploration Society, and as a part-time tutor for Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education. As an archaeologist, I've worked for fieldwork projects in Egypt, Turkey, and the UK.

My work has appeared in The Independent, The Art Newspaper, Apollo Magazine, History Today, Timeless Travels, Current World Archaeology, Science Magazine, B.Inspired (Brussels Airline Magazine), and Showbiz Culture (SC Exhibitions Magazine), among others.